I have run across the article “Iron and the Soul” by Henry Rollins a couple of times, most recently today. Originally published in Details Magazine in 1994, it has appeared in various fitness sites and if you haven’t read it yet, it never gets old.

Henry Rollins, was the former front man for the 80’s Hermosa Beach, punk band, Black Flag and many projects and work since then. As a kid, Rollins suffered from low esteem and by 18 was filled with rage, something you have to have to lead a successful punk band! In the article, Rollins talks about his relationship with the Iron.

Read the article. I think you will enjoy it.

Read the rest of this entry

Just like the last day of 2007, I finished my 2008 training with a solid heavy lifting workout by hitting personal best lifts, this time in the overhead press, the push press and the push jerk.

Always a nice way to close out the year with a late rally! Read the rest of this entry

Father Time-less?

2008 was a very good training year for me for many reasons. I am thankful for all the accomplishments, events, but mostly the people who are a part of my training life. They kept it fun! Here are a few of the reasons: Read the rest of this entry

Thanksgiving is the day to acknowledge all we are thankful for and so in that spirit, as I wish all the readers of MFBB a Happy Thanksgiving, here is what I am thankful for from the perspective of health and fitness.

• I am grateful for my good health. I recently got the results of my physical with blood test and passed with flying colors!
• I am thankful for all my gym friends, freaks, acquaintences and training partners who can take a share of credit for my successes.
• I am grateful for my personal bests over the year.
• I enjoyed competing in my first, (and possibly last) Highland Games.
• To the Moynihan Institute for all the smack and humor.
• I am very happy that our gym found a way to not only stay open but to upgrade the facility.
• I am grateful to have a gym that has allowed me to bring in my bumpers and do Olympic lifts.
• I am fortunate to have found good teachers to help me with Oly lifting, kettlebells and powerlifting.
• I am happy and grateful to have enough equipment to be able to train independently of the gym if I desire.
• As I expressed to Nico Coetzee, I am thankful for all his hard efforts in keeping Met-Rx open during the lean times.
• I would be remiss in expressing gratitude for a relatively injury-free year.

Recalling all the things I have gratitude for is all fine and dandy, but their are some turkeys that need to be called out and get the Scraggly Turkey Award.

• To the trainer who dropped a Silent But Deadly fart while training his clients and gassing out the rest of us. He may have even shit his pants for all I know. It was nasty!
• To all the trainers and their clients who are too lazy to rack their plates and put things away when finished.
• To gym management for making me remove my bumper plates.
• To the knuckleheads who walk perilously and obliviously close to me while I am snatching or kettlebell swinging.
• To all the chatterboxes who distract those of us who are training hard.
• To all the mirror narcissists and big egos.
• To the crappy music the gym generally plays.
• To the dweebs who use the squat racks to do bicep curls.
• To trainers teaching and allowing lousy technique with their clients.

Mostly, though, I would like to thank all of you who read this blog and hope you continue to check back often. Thank you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday I had a conversation with a Type-A motivated and driven runner who says running hasn’t been very much fun lately. This competitive athlete is vexed by self-imposed pressure in the drive for splits and PRs, heart rate measurements and getting in time at the track and gym.

Often, for the Type A competitive athlete, this is just burnout from overtraining, or more accurately, not getting enough recovery and sleep. It is amazing what a few days of total rest away from their primary training mode will do for these people. For all of us who train, really. Doing something else or nothing at all and staying away long enough until we are energized and rejuvenated about getting back into training and competing works wonders.

Most of the time, I think, that rest and doing something entirely different…and fun, is all that takes to put things back into a realistic perspective. The time for rest isn’t just when you are injured.

I am no longer competing at anything (and when I did, I took myself too seriously)!  I do consider myself to be a non-competitive athlete. When I am overloaded with training, which at my age, happens more often than I like, I have no problem taking the time off. Never have. Then again, I am no Type A!

In the past, I competed at inline speedskating and as much as I liked the racing, I was happier with the training. Prior to that, I too was a runner and had raced distances from the 5K to the marathon. I was a middle-of the-pack hacker and was generally fine with it, except when a had a finishing time goal I had to attain or someone I needed to “crush”.

Between reading books and magazines on training theory, I read some of George Sheehan’s work, especially “Running and Being”. Considered the “runners’ guru”, Sheehan brought a different perspective to running which included philosophical elements as well as the fun component. (I admit at the time, the philosophical aspect he wrote about was a little over the top for my twenty-something mindset). I do to this day, still recommend the book to runners and non-runners alike. George sums it up best when he said,

“Fitness has to be fun. If it is not play, there will be no fitness. Play, you see, is the process.
Fitness is merely the product.”

Right on cue with our discussion, Ross Enamait posted an excellent article on his blog titled “Training For the Fun of It”. You should take a moment and read it.

After the wins and losses, the PRs and the misses, there has to be a greater reason for training. Do you know yours?

While for me, today is a day rest and fun, for Val it was time for another race. The Surf City 5K on Main St, Huntington Beach got started at 8:00 AM to kick off 4th of July festivities. Val had done this race last year and it will become one of her annual events. As expected, she did well and placed 4th in her age division.

A little later, Val’s niece, Jaclyn, at age 11, ran her first race, a mile and did well, finishing close to the front of the pack.

And for me? I was just chillin’, watching the races and later the parade that went from Pacific Coast Highway and up the Main St boulevard, which was packed with spectators. This was a very traditional holiday parade and nice to watch.

You may have seen a hot new three-wheeled motorcycle cruising down a street near you. My brother was many who waited many months for the BRP Can-Am Spyder Roadster and finally got his at the end of last year.

The Spyder is a pretty remarkable motorcycle in that it combines the best features of a motorcycle and a sports car. This bike causes more than just a few double takes. My brother, Greg, pictured above on his 106 horsepower Spyder in Oakland Raider silver and black loves his bike and rides it often (and probably faster than he should).

Jay Leno, also one of the “early adopters” has this to say about his Spyder:

See the Spyder in action:

I enjoy the gym I train at, but 95% of it’s floor space is ruled by The Machines. It is the 5% of the floor space, “back in the corner” where I dwell and am grateful for that for it is there where the barbells, plates and squat racks are.

When I first started lifting years ago, my first introduction to a “real gym” was the Eagles Club in downtown Milwaukee on Wisconsin Avenue. My dad would take me there on Saturdays and sometimes I could go on my own, once I had my driver’s license. (It was on that busy street where Dad taught me to parallel park).

The large, landmark three story building had a large swimming pool reeking of too much chlorine and cloudy water with old-timers endlessly swimming laps in their birthday suits. Upstairs was a boxing gym, complete with an old, well-used ring, heavy bags speed bags, leather and wood jump ropes and a lot of barbells, dumbbells, chalk and bad lighting. It was there I learned to pick up a bar off the floor and put it over my head. I would leave that place covered in chalk and it was great. I was young and in awe of the place and had a sense of the history there. Famous boxers like Max Baer had fought there and other fighters looking to make it to the big time by way of the Golden Gloves got their start at the Eagles aerie. That was a man’s gym. (I should note that on the first floor there was a bar and a dance floor). Now THAT was a gym! But I wax nostalgic.

At my suburban high school our “weight room” was 14 x 14 space and in the center, a shiny new chrome Universal machine and little else. Gone were the barbells, dumbells and chalk. Those were from a bygone era, never known by most of the kids there. What I had in front of me was the future of weight training. As a young kid, the future is what is important, not the past and the multi-station machines were going to give me the big muscles I was after.

As the machines took hold and gyms switched to them, they advanced, grew and multiplied and a new industry was born. Gyms like Bally’s and 24 Hour Fitness sprouted up all over the country and barbells were largely forgotten or ignored. The dumbbells fared better, but it was the machines that ruled the day.

They rule at my gym today but in the 5% Corner, there are still bars and squat racks, and we can powerlift and even lift overhead with the Olympic lifts. In that corner, we are left alone, save for the occasional guy that wants to pick up a bar at a squat rack and do bicep curls. For most of the gymgoers, those who lift over there are at least a curiosity, some “hardcore” and a few freaks (strongmen lifters).

For me, the progression went from barbells to machines and now back to barbells. Which is better? Did the machines advance strength training? Without hesitation, the barbell has made the biggest difference in my strength training and it wasn’t until age 50 that I figured that out.

In “The Machines Aren’t Alright”, author and strength coach Matt Gary does a splendid job breaking down the difference between classic weightlifting equipment versus machines. Here is an excerpt:

Today’s gyms and training facilities are full of unnecessary items. Gyms are what society perceives they should be like…attractive, comfortable, and welcoming. How do those qualities equate to an atmosphere of physical achievement? I fail to see the connection. Gyms should be
entirely uncomfortable, unpleasant, and unwelcoming. Instead of appearing like a lounge, a support network of like-minded individuals should be present because an individual will push harder and risk more in the company of trustworthy peers. Instead of mirrors, there should be motivational thoughts, inspirational quotes, record boards, and photos of those who have
come before us and paved the highway of physical achievement.

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Before training, I had a pretty intense session with “Doc Jox”, my chiropractor. I have couple of nagging injuries, a “tennis elbow”, a C7 impingement on the left side causing tingling down the arm and scapular issues. Besides the adjustments, he performed ART and Trigger Point Therapy. Now that was painful and I believe would constitute “torture” these days. I asked if this was permisseable under the terms of the Geneva Convention.

My desire (and ability) to train hard was gone, so I went pretty light and basic.

Burgener warm-ups x 3.

5 x 3 snatches + overhead squats, 45/65/70/75/65/70.

5 x 3 Good Mornings. (Tapped the bar on the pins as my upper body was parallel to the floor and paused, negating the stretch reflex),

45/95/115/125/145.

With the books closing on 2007, I don’t expect to be setting any PR’s but in that respect, I had a good year of increasing totals and lowering times, most notably in the deadlifts. More on that later.

I had injuries heal and got new ones to replace them. My right scapula is now good, but the left is kind of wobbly from overdoing sets of barbell snatches. I have tendonitis in the right elbow from either an errant kettlebell swing or a barbell clean that got too far away from me. I stayed pretty healthy with only a couple of bouts with allergens during the Santa Ana winds recently.

I found myself skating less, but swinging kettlebells more. In August, Val bought me my first KB, a 20 kg hunk of metal with a handle. Previously, I used a kettlebell only as part of a Crossfit WOD. Now I have four different weights and Val bought me instruction with a RKC trainer as a Christmas present and can do swings and snatches with the 24 kg kettlebell.

I have continued to mix up my workouts like the Crossfit programming model. Gone are the days of single activities such as speedskating, running and mountain bike riding, all of which I did largely at the exclusion of much of anything else, save an occasional trip to the gym.

Speaking of Crossfit, while I still enjoy doing their WODs and subscribe to their journal, I am no longer a “Kool-Aid drinker”. I never was someone who was attracted to cult-like organizations and their zealots, but I do continue to learn much about fitness from Crossfit.

My interest has steadily grown in powerlifting and Olympic style weightlifting and will get quality training wherever and whenever I can find it. I am even sticking my toe back in the water, so to speak with running, an activity I gave up years ago. I have no intention to ever be a big mileage guy, though.

I am enjoying the complexities of learning the Olympic lifts and I benefit greatly from the simplicity of bodyweight exercises I get from Ross Enamait of rosstraining.com and Crossfit. Mixing up workouts has been the best thing to happen to my physical training and I credit Crossfit for that and Crossfit Marina, with the Serranos as trainers and Brent O as a competitive foil for my sessions.

I have been more consistent in going to the gym than I have in many years and almost always look forward to my sessions there. I also like training at home or in a park. To that end, I have been buying useful fitness “toys” like Elite rings, fitness bands, weighted vest, weightlifting shoes, racing flats, jump ropes, chalk, a stopwatch, an Ab Mat and a kick butt ab roller from Lifeline. There are more things I will be getting in ‘08, but training at home is a now a viable alternative.

In ‘07, my diet largely went to crap and my weight crept up. That will change in 2008. ‘Nuff said about that.

I made some modest gains lifting over the year, and in all cases form has improved but much needs to improve in that area over the next year. At the beginning of the year I could clean 145 as a 1RM and the last time I tried, I was doing 175 lbs, but I am certain I can beat that right now. It will just have to wait! The Crossfit Total, (CFT) consisting of the best lifts in the squat, overhead press and deadlift was 760 lbs in January and is now 910, with the biggest increase coming with a 415 lb max deadlift, which increased by 75#. My overhead press increased by 25 lbs to 185 and my squat went up by 45#, a bit of a disappointment. My 5K run time at the beginning of the year sucked and stills sucks with no improvement to speak of at 28 minutes.

This year saw, what I believe were growth changes to the Barbarian Blog and I will continue to tweak it next year.

There were a lot of “Good times” in 2007 as Brent was fond of saying, (where have you been dude?) and more to come next year. Stay tuned.

Check below for a couple of workouts done this weekend…

Saturday:

Kind of an active rest day and ran around the block a couple of times which took all of 19 minutes for just under two miles.

Sunday:

Ran 2 x 800 meters

Sit-ups: 50/40/30

Push-ups: 50/40/30

Overhead Squats: 50/40/30

Back Extensions: 50/40/30

One arm Overhead Squats: 25# overhead, holding 53# with the other hanging arm x 12 and again x 20. 18/25#, 2 x 20.

Kettlebell Swings, 24 kg: 10/10/10/10/10

Kettlebell Snatches, 24 kg: 10/20/20

This time of year, it is easy to fall out of your training regimen. The demands of the holidays can take their toll and maybe this is the time to back away from the training. If it is not, then how do you stick with the plan and still find time to enjoy the holidays?

Back in the day when I was a runner, winter was an especially challenging time, especially when it was really cold, like -20°F Wisconsin-cold. I was in and out of it all day long working, so the worst thing for me to do was to think about going back out in it once I got in my warm and comfy apartment. The key for me was to get home and put on a pre-made cassette tape of music I liked, starting off mellow with John Klemmer’s saxophone and eventually building to a blazing crescendo of the appropriately titled “10th Avenue Freeze Out” by Bruce Springsteen.

From there, With a Zen “empty mind”, I changed into my workout clothes and then started into some gentle stretches. I would started getting toasty with all my layers of clothing. Soon, the music and my built up cache of trapped body heat had me up and out the front door. After that initial blast to the face of cold air, I settled into what was usually a pretty good run.

The coldest day I ever ran was a 4 miler with the wind chill at -90°. That was actually easy to get psyched up for because of the challenge of running in such an extreme temperature.

My “back door” was my “Rule of 10″ which stated that if I really could not make this work after 10 minutes, for whatever reason, I gave myself permission to turn around and go home, still getting in a 20 minute run. The “Rule” was seldom invoked however. It still works for me today, but the “Rule of 10″ now is the “Rule of 20 or So”, taking into account I am older and it takes longer to warm-up and find the flow ;-

Create or find a pre-training routine that works for you where the end result is you end up doing your workout in spite of the distractions, real or perceived. Isn’t it amazing how your brain can come with with a dazzling array of excuses, justifications and rationalizations for not training today and then negotiating with yourself on how you will “make it right” tomorrow. Yeah, right, dude! When you do have a scheduled “day off”, take it, relax and enjoy it. You deserve it and the crescendo will again build for tomorrow’s workout.